Passengers 169 Fatalities 169 Date 30 January 2000 Injuries (nonfatal) 10 Survivor 10 | Crew 10 Survivors 10 Number of deaths 169 Operator Kenya Airways Passenger count 169 | |
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Summary Electrical fault combined with pilot error Site Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire Similar Air Philippines Flight 541, Gulf Air Flight 072, Hapag‑Lloyd Flight 3378, Alliance Air Flight 7412, Kenya Airways Flight 507 | ||
Kenya airways flight 431
Kenya Airways Flight 431 was an international scheduled Abidjan–Lagos–Nairobi passenger service, operated with an Airbus A310-300, that crashed into the sea off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire on 30 January 2000, shortly after takeoff from Félix Houphouët-Boigny International Airport, Abidjan. There were 179 people on board, of whom 169 were passengers. Only ten people survived the accident, which was the first fatal one for Kenya Airways.
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Aircraft and pilots
The aircraft involved in the accident was an Airbus A310-304, registration 5Y-BEN, named Harambee Star. With c/n 426, the airframe entered service with Kenya Airways in September 1986 (1986-09). The aircraft had logged 58,115 flight hours at the time of the accident. It was equipped with a twin-GE CF6-80C2A2 powerplant. The port and starboard engine's serial numbers were 690,120 and 690,141, respectively; before the crash, they had accumulated 43,635 and 41,754 flight hours, respectively.
The flight was under the command of 44-year-old Captain Paul Muthee, an experienced officer who had logged 11,636 flying hours at the time of the accident, 1,664 on an Airbus A310. He qualified as an A310 pilot on 10 August 1986, and also held ratings for Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-200, Fokker 50 and Fokker 27, as well as various small aircraft. The first officer was 43-year-old Lazaro Mutumbi Mulli, who had 7,295 hours of flight time, 5,768 in an A310. Both pilots had performed four landings and four takeoffs on the type at Abidjan Airport; their last takeoff from the airport took place on the day of the accident.
The airframe was completely destroyed by the impact.
Accident
The flight originated in Nairobi as Flight KQ430, and was due to land in Abidjan after a stopover in Lagos. Many Nigerians who travelled to Dubai for duty-free shopping used this flight. On this day after being held over Lagos, the flight continued directly to Abidjan because of poor local weather conditions: harmattan winds blowing southwards from the Sahara made skies over Lagos unusually hazy on that day, and all incoming flights at Lagos Airport were halted.
After a three-hour layover, the plane took off for Lagos at 21:08 GMT and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of the airport, off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, about a minute later.
This was Kenya Airways' first fatal accident. After the accident, the airline set up a crisis centre at the InterContinental Hotel in Nairobi.
Passengers and crew
There were 169 casualties, out of 179 people on board the aircraft. Most of the passengers and crew were reported to be Nigerians. Two of the crewmembers on board worked for KLM. The 168 people that lost their lives in the accident came from 33 countries; the nationality of one additional deceased victim was not determined. Following is a list of the nationalities of the deceased:
Powerboat operators and fishermen extracted at least seven of the survivors from the water. Of those survivors, three were Nigerians, one was a Kenyan, one was a Gambian, one was an Indian, and one was a Rwandan. One survivor, a Frenchman, swam almost 1 mile (1.6 km) to the shore. Of the 12 initial survivors, two died in the hospital. Of the ten ultimate survivors, nine received serious injuries and one received minor injuries. Four survivors received first-degree burns from contact with jet fuel in the water. The entire crew of ten died in the accident.
The University Hospital Medical Center at Treichville in Abidjan examined the deceased. The center identified 103 of the bodies and was unable to identify the other 43. Of the deceased, the following causes of death were established: 108 died from serious poly-traumatic lesions, 22 died from a combination of drowning lesions and serious poly-traumatic lesions, and 15 died solely from drowning lesions. The hospital could not determine the injuries sustained by one of the 146 bodies. According to the autopsy reports, a violent deceleration or a twisting or cutting action resulted in the injuries. Forty-three of the deceased received first-degree burns due to contact with the jet fuel spilled in the water. The pilots died from poly-traumatic lesions; they also received first-degree burns from the jet fuel.
As of March 2012, the accident has the highest death toll of any aviation accident involving an Airbus A310.
Investigation
The Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile (BEA), the accident investigation authority of France, assisted in the search for the flight recorders. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada analysed the flight safety recorders. The Ministry of Transport of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire published the original French-language accident report. The BEA published its English version of the report.
The sequence of events was as follows:
- An errant stall warning sounds immediately after takeoff.
- The pilot puts the aircraft into a descent.
- The crew does not apply maximum engine power.
- The ground proximity warning does not sound because the stall warning takes precedence.
- Overspeed warning sounds.
- The Captain gives the order to climb.
- The aircraft collides with the sea.
The report noted that taking off after dark, towards the sea, the pilots lacked visual references, and recommended that for crews of aircraft in which false stall warnings are likely, type rating and later training should include ways to recognise and manage such false warnings when close to the ground.
Aftermath
Kenya Airways compensated the families of 60 deceased Nigerians; each family received US$130,000 (equivalent to $175,833 in 2016).